So, the blog entries here have been less frequent, largely because not much has been happening that I felt like writing about. Yes, there are stories in the news that are beyond belief, yet all too real. The appalling story of pubescent girls in Warren Jeffs' fundamentalist Mormon cult being given in "spiritual marriages" that are nothing but child rape shocks the rational mind, and once again points out the evil that religion does to the human mind. The news item about the depraved man in Austria who kept his own daughter as a sex slave, impregnating her seven times and burning one child that died by putting the body in the furnace of his home goes beyond what a normal person can wrap their head around. These totally repugnant and twisted news items are so foreign to how I think that I haven't felt like providing any commentary. The stories speak for themselves to the depravity that human beings are capable of committing.
So instead, I will comment on the sad state of our society when it comes to race relations. Case in point is the extreme right's continued attacks upon Senator Barack Obama. They have tried to paint him as a muslim (to quote Seinfeld, "Not that there's anything wrong with that!"), at least as far as Constitutional requirement for office. Playing upon his middle name to connect him in people's minds with Saddam Hussein, accusing him of refusing to respect the flag, and trying to pin the disgusting words of Jeremiah Wright on Mr. Obama, continue incessantly by the irrational righties. I think I have this figured out however. These objections are smokescreens.
The detractors don't want debate on the issues. They would rather work in the realm of character assassination, lies, and innuendo. The reason, in my opinion, is the fact that these objections are substitutes for the fact that these folks hold racist beliefs. The fact that Senator Obama is half African is absolutely scary to the racist crowd. They cannot maintain any credibility in today's society by laying their racism out on the table for all to see. Therefore, they substitute other spurious attacks on him to accomplish their goal of keeping Obama from gaining the White House at any cost. And shamefully, Hillary Clinton has also joined the fray in taking this card from the deck of Karl Rove. I am thoroughly disgusted.
It is clear to me that of the three remaining candidates for President, Mr. Obama is the most rational, intelligent, and statesmanlike of the bunch. I hope he can get the nomination of his party wrapped up in short order, as I believe his message of hope, change, and progress is exactly the prescription to cure what ails our nation today.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Home Again
Last night, we got back home just after 9 PM Mountain Daylight Time. It is good to be back, although I wish we could have stayed longer. It turned out that it was critical that we were in Houston to help my parents during my dad's first week home from the hospital, just as I thought it might be. We got him to three doctors appointments (urology, cardiology, and cardio-vascular surgeon), plus an appointment to get a chest X-ray. My mom could not have handled that on her own, as we even ended up taking her and dad both in wheelchairs to one of the appointments due to the walking distances involved. The lovely spouse worked herself nearly to death cleaning the house, as my mother cannot physically handle that chore in such a big house. All in all, I believe we made a vital difference in Dad's recovery from his triple-bypass.
Not to say we didn't have some touch and go moments, however. Still, huge progress was made. When we arrived last Sunday, Dad was rather pale and very weak, having just been out of the hospital one day. By the time we left on Friday, he had gotten rid of the catheter and was walking a little further each day. When we arrived, he could make 2 loops of the living room, through the kitchen and back to his bedroom with his walker. By the time we left, he was walking a loop around the supermarket while holding on to a shopping cart. I hope it won't be long before he can shed the walker altogether, but he has still got a ways to go to get there.
The surgeon gave him a heart-shaped pillow with a human heart picture on it. The surgeon had drawn what the bypass looked like on it, and signed the pillow. Dad holds it to his chest to cough, helping keep him supported while coughing. He named the pillow "Pete". So during his recovery, Pete stays right beside him.
Friday was a crazy day. Thursday night, the lovely spouse's left eye developed an issue. She wears special contact lenses for her keratoconus, and light hitting her eye was even causing pain. She also had extreme pain in her eye all around the socket. Thursday overnight brought a thundershower to Houston, with the lightning illumination even causing her pain. I was asleep and didn't know, since she was letting me sleep. SO...Friday morning off we go to the emergency room at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Sugar Land. They had to turn off the lights in the ER to keep her out of pain. She ended up getting drops for pain put in her eyes and a referral to an opthamologist. The opthamologist diagnosed an ulcer and a scratch on her cornea. So we had to fill a prescription for antibiotic eye drops and a follow up appointment was made with her doctor back in Colorado.
Here's the odd thing...while we were in the ER with her cornea problems, our oldest son was receiving a cornea transplant back in Colorado. He found out a day before that a cornea had become available for him. He has keratoconus so bad in one eye, that he could barely see out of it. We are hopeful this transplant will give him his full vision back.
So anyway, back to Friday...after returning from the opthamologist's office, we took Dad in for his appointment with the surgeon. Then we decided that since we have to work on Monday, we should try to get back to Colorado with a little time to rest. So, at 4:30 PM, we hit the road, avoiding I-45 to Dallas, opting instead for Texas 6 to Waco and I-35/I-35W to Fort Worth. Houston's god-awful Friday PM rush traffic stole an hour-and-a-half from us, but we still got in to a hotel on the north side of Fort Worth by 10 PM. That gave us a jump start, and less than 800 miles to home, with Saturday and even part of Sunday left to cover it. We got out of Fort Worth at 9 AM after eating breakfast at Waffle House, and got home about 9 PM...thus a 13-hour drive on Saturday, accounting for the gain of an hour at the New Mexico line.
Oh, one more thing. Coming back, we saw the Estelline cop and his new silver Dodge Charger parked in front of a house about half-a-block north of the highway. Cool looking car for this nothing town's speed trap. Luckily we avoided any "imperial entaglements" anywhere along the way. But since I don't speed, much to the lovely spouse's chagrin, I am not in much danger of that anyway.
So today, we have to go pick up Molly the dog, and try to get the bugs washed off my car. And it is a beautiful day here in the Rocky Mountain West!
Not to say we didn't have some touch and go moments, however. Still, huge progress was made. When we arrived last Sunday, Dad was rather pale and very weak, having just been out of the hospital one day. By the time we left on Friday, he had gotten rid of the catheter and was walking a little further each day. When we arrived, he could make 2 loops of the living room, through the kitchen and back to his bedroom with his walker. By the time we left, he was walking a loop around the supermarket while holding on to a shopping cart. I hope it won't be long before he can shed the walker altogether, but he has still got a ways to go to get there.
The surgeon gave him a heart-shaped pillow with a human heart picture on it. The surgeon had drawn what the bypass looked like on it, and signed the pillow. Dad holds it to his chest to cough, helping keep him supported while coughing. He named the pillow "Pete". So during his recovery, Pete stays right beside him.
Friday was a crazy day. Thursday night, the lovely spouse's left eye developed an issue. She wears special contact lenses for her keratoconus, and light hitting her eye was even causing pain. She also had extreme pain in her eye all around the socket. Thursday overnight brought a thundershower to Houston, with the lightning illumination even causing her pain. I was asleep and didn't know, since she was letting me sleep. SO...Friday morning off we go to the emergency room at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Sugar Land. They had to turn off the lights in the ER to keep her out of pain. She ended up getting drops for pain put in her eyes and a referral to an opthamologist. The opthamologist diagnosed an ulcer and a scratch on her cornea. So we had to fill a prescription for antibiotic eye drops and a follow up appointment was made with her doctor back in Colorado.
Here's the odd thing...while we were in the ER with her cornea problems, our oldest son was receiving a cornea transplant back in Colorado. He found out a day before that a cornea had become available for him. He has keratoconus so bad in one eye, that he could barely see out of it. We are hopeful this transplant will give him his full vision back.
So anyway, back to Friday...after returning from the opthamologist's office, we took Dad in for his appointment with the surgeon. Then we decided that since we have to work on Monday, we should try to get back to Colorado with a little time to rest. So, at 4:30 PM, we hit the road, avoiding I-45 to Dallas, opting instead for Texas 6 to Waco and I-35/I-35W to Fort Worth. Houston's god-awful Friday PM rush traffic stole an hour-and-a-half from us, but we still got in to a hotel on the north side of Fort Worth by 10 PM. That gave us a jump start, and less than 800 miles to home, with Saturday and even part of Sunday left to cover it. We got out of Fort Worth at 9 AM after eating breakfast at Waffle House, and got home about 9 PM...thus a 13-hour drive on Saturday, accounting for the gain of an hour at the New Mexico line.
Oh, one more thing. Coming back, we saw the Estelline cop and his new silver Dodge Charger parked in front of a house about half-a-block north of the highway. Cool looking car for this nothing town's speed trap. Luckily we avoided any "imperial entaglements" anywhere along the way. But since I don't speed, much to the lovely spouse's chagrin, I am not in much danger of that anyway.
So today, we have to go pick up Molly the dog, and try to get the bugs washed off my car. And it is a beautiful day here in the Rocky Mountain West!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Drive to Houston
Over the weekend, the lovely spouse and I drove down to Houston from Colorado to try to help out with my father now that he is home following his triple bypass heart surgery. As it was a rather hurried trip down, I didn't take any pictures as I usually would on such a road trip. However, I did notice some things to get shots of during the return trip, if possible.
This was almost the trip that wasn't, as the spouse came down with a case of pneumonia in one lung, and I had to stop by the urgent care clinic in Parker on the way out of town due to a persistent cough and sinus problem. Not wanting to make my dad sick during his recovery, I wanted a professional opinion of the situation. The doc said my problem was a virus, but he said I should wear a mask when close to Dad, and be sure to wash my hands often. My father's doctor said he was in less danger around us than when in the hospital, so we drove on down, albeit at a later hour than we had hoped. It was around 10 am Saturday (11 am in Texas) by the time we got on the road.
Last year, I wrote about the speed trap cop in Estelline, Texas, so I was curious to see him. I even considered trying to get him to pose for a photo with me. As we approached Estelline just before dusk, a big 18 wheeler blew by us, so I thought I might get to see Estelline's finest in action. But much to my dismay, he was nowhere to be found.
We kept going until we got to Wichita Falls, where we shut down for the night at about 10 PM. We stayed at the Candlewood Suites at the Madeline Street exit. The hotel clerk, a very nice woman named Linda, looked for the best rate we could get. She got us in for $75. Now I must say that this hotel was very nice, very clean and very nicely appointed. It is a new facility with a kitchenette in each room, and the most comfortable beds I have ever experienced in a hotel. The room had a flat-screen, high-definition television, and was the cleanest room I have seen at any lodging facility. I highly recommend this facility if you are in need of a place to spend a night or more in Wichita Falls.
So we ended up driving about 650 miles on Saturday, and today we traversed the remaining 400 miles through Fort Worth and Dallas, and on to Houston. Along the way through the Dallas-Forth Worth Metroplex on Texas 114, we passed the Texas Motor Speedway, the north end of DFW International Airport in Grapevine, through Las Colinas and on by Texas Stadium. By about three o'clock this afternoon, we were in Houston.
Dad was released from the hospital on Saturday, so he is home for further recuperation. He is doing well, but he still has a long road ahead. I am so very glad that they found this problem before it was too late. He said he felt himself having a problem that was making him feel worse every day just before the surgery.
My mom has very limited mobility, so this is a difficult situation. It is also difficult to know what to do to help. However, I am glad to see my mom & dad. But as always when we go to a different environment, the lovely spouse's asthma acts up, and with her still getting over pneumonia, I am hoping we don't have to cut this trip short.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Kites
It is springtime, and although warm weather in Colorado comes a little later than in some places, it is getting to be kite flying weather. The winds of spring, coupled with the pleasant temperatures make for the perfect season for kite flying.
Kites have a long history, maybe going back as far as 3,000 years ago to China. They have been used for scientific experiments (think Ben Franklin and lightning), military applications, and navigation. Of course, kites are great fun too!
Now you can buy a kite and have fun flying it. Or even better, you can make your own and have the gratification of making something that will fly. Some of my early childhood memories are of my dad teaching me to make a diamond kite when I was about 4 or 5 years old. We would get the sticks, glue, and string, and use the paper from a grocery bag to create the surface of the kite. If you are artistic, you can decorate your kite to make it really unique.
I have also purchased my share of kites as a kid. Brands I remember are Hi-Flyer and Gayla. The store-bought kites used to be paper also, but they went to plastic and nylon over the years.
I have a particularly vivid kite memory of when I was about 8 years old. I was trying to get my kite aloft, and some of the older kids were taunting me, because they had theirs flying. Well, finally I got the kite up in the air. Not only was it flying, but I kept getting more and more string. I don't remember how much string I used, but the kids who were teasing me started bringing me more string, and by the time it started getting dark, my kite was so high you could barely see it. But if you looked closely, it was visible for miles around. My mom and sisters saw it from the mall that was about 3 miles away. To get it back down, one of the older boys got his dad's electric drill and we used a wooden stick on a drill bit to pull it back in. So as not to tear up the kite, we just kept punching the drill trigger in short bursts. Finally, the kite got back down, in one piece, but a little battered for its journey.
I found some kite-building resources on the Internet. Actually there are a bunch of them.
For a video on making a sled kite, CLICK HERE.
For a whole lot of other kite types, CLICK HERE.
For a history of kites, CLICK HERE.
So get a kite built and start flying! I think this will be a good project for me and my grandkids!
Kites have a long history, maybe going back as far as 3,000 years ago to China. They have been used for scientific experiments (think Ben Franklin and lightning), military applications, and navigation. Of course, kites are great fun too!
Now you can buy a kite and have fun flying it. Or even better, you can make your own and have the gratification of making something that will fly. Some of my early childhood memories are of my dad teaching me to make a diamond kite when I was about 4 or 5 years old. We would get the sticks, glue, and string, and use the paper from a grocery bag to create the surface of the kite. If you are artistic, you can decorate your kite to make it really unique.
I have also purchased my share of kites as a kid. Brands I remember are Hi-Flyer and Gayla. The store-bought kites used to be paper also, but they went to plastic and nylon over the years.
I have a particularly vivid kite memory of when I was about 8 years old. I was trying to get my kite aloft, and some of the older kids were taunting me, because they had theirs flying. Well, finally I got the kite up in the air. Not only was it flying, but I kept getting more and more string. I don't remember how much string I used, but the kids who were teasing me started bringing me more string, and by the time it started getting dark, my kite was so high you could barely see it. But if you looked closely, it was visible for miles around. My mom and sisters saw it from the mall that was about 3 miles away. To get it back down, one of the older boys got his dad's electric drill and we used a wooden stick on a drill bit to pull it back in. So as not to tear up the kite, we just kept punching the drill trigger in short bursts. Finally, the kite got back down, in one piece, but a little battered for its journey.
I found some kite-building resources on the Internet. Actually there are a bunch of them.
For a video on making a sled kite, CLICK HERE.
For a whole lot of other kite types, CLICK HERE.
For a history of kites, CLICK HERE.
So get a kite built and start flying! I think this will be a good project for me and my grandkids!
Friday, April 04, 2008
Anxiously Waiting, But Optimistic
It is a beautiful day here in Colorado
UPDATE: It is 10:39 AM in Houston, and my sister just called to say they are beginning the bypass phase of the surgery, after obtaining the blood vessels needed for the bypass, from his leg. They called from the operating room, and said he is doing well.
UPDATE: It is about a quarter-to-one PM CDT, and while the medical team was working on Dad, they found other blockages, so they ended up doing a triple-bypass. Far better to do it now than having to go back in again later. They also did have to go ahead and use the profusion pump. It is another estimated two hours before this is finished.
UPDATE: The news is good! My father is out of surgery, and the report is that he came through it like the champion he is! They finished up with the surgery at about 2:00 PM CDT, and they hope that he will be able to sit in a chair for a little bit tonight. By Sunday, he will likely be out of the ICU and into his room at the hospital. This is the report we wanted, and I am very proud of my dad's bravery and willingness to get this over and done with. Now, the healing & recovery begins!
It is at times like this that living 1000 miles away is very difficult. I have every reason to believe that things will go well, yet this is serious surgery. My mom took him to the doctor because he kept having some pain in his chest. After getting an echocardiogram, the cardiologist prescribed a heart catheter to get a first hand look for any blockages. That was done yesterday, and indeed, a major blockage was found. So, instead of going home last night, today dad is undergoing bypass surgery.
As hard as this is to deal with emotionally, I am taking great solace in the fact that I am glad we are dealing with surgery rather than the first symptom being a massive heart attack. The fact that he has never had a heart attack makes his prognosis for recovery all the better. I considered flying there, but at this point, I cannot do much to help. It is probably better if I wait a bit until he is home and on the way to recovery to make the trip.
So, on this day when I look out to see blue skies and snowcapped mountains, I await the call that everything went well.
UPDATE: It is 10:39 AM in Houston, and my sister just called to say they are beginning the bypass phase of the surgery, after obtaining the blood vessels needed for the bypass, from his leg. They called from the operating room, and said he is doing well.
UPDATE: It is about a quarter-to-one PM CDT, and while the medical team was working on Dad, they found other blockages, so they ended up doing a triple-bypass. Far better to do it now than having to go back in again later. They also did have to go ahead and use the profusion pump. It is another estimated two hours before this is finished.
UPDATE: The news is good! My father is out of surgery, and the report is that he came through it like the champion he is! They finished up with the surgery at about 2:00 PM CDT, and they hope that he will be able to sit in a chair for a little bit tonight. By Sunday, he will likely be out of the ICU and into his room at the hospital. This is the report we wanted, and I am very proud of my dad's bravery and willingness to get this over and done with. Now, the healing & recovery begins!
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